August 30, 2022 | UCLG ASPAC and Smart Change – the EU-funded project in Jakarta – co-hosted Urban 20 Mayors Summit Side Event “Digital Governance in Accelerating Sustainable Development and Climate Resiliency,” one of the preliminary events organised to gear up for the Urban 20 Mayors Summit 2022 chaired by Jakarta Capital City Government, host of UCLG ASPAC Secretariat Office, and co-chaired by West Java Province.
This event brought together more than 90 mayors, city representatives and urban stakeholders from G20 countries showcasing benefits that cities obtain in utilising digitalisation to meet their local needs, such as economic development and recovery, sustainable mobility, pandemic resilience, in addition to the valid and accountable data to support local administration shaping their policies and improving public service delivery. Covering the G20’s priority areas, the intensive dialogue and enthusiasm inspired all participants and provided them with plenty of opportunities to collaborate, network, and bring their innovation further.
Gracing the event were Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General UCLG ASPAC – co-hosting with Ms. Ina Lepel, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia and Ms. Ana-Maria Trǎsnea, State of Berlin Delegate to the Federation, Permanent Secretary for Active Citizenship, Democracy Support and International Relations.
In her welcoming remarks, Dr. Bernadia highlighted how ICT has already proven its value in accelerating economic recovery post-pandemic. She quoted research by McKinsey mentioning that, due to the pandemic, a digital transformation had been accelerated by seven years globally and 10 years in Asia-Pacific. She also called attention to the fact that cities have proven to be socially and economically resilient and able to bounce back after major crises.
Ms. Ines Lepel, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Indonesia, mentioned the partnership between the Capital of Jakarta and Berlin in a sister-city partnership that has resulted in many aspects, one of them is the acceleration of digital transformation that increases internet users over 10 years.
Ms. Ana-Maria Trâsnea as the State of Berlin Delegate to the Federation, Permanent Secretary for Active Citizenship, Democracy Support and International Relations, delivered her opening remarks emphasising cooperation amongst cities that have become essential in handling global challenges together. She also shared how Berlin has been working towards multinational and binational partnerships between large cities, from which they believe people will heavily get the benefits. She mentioned how the Smart Change project further develops smart city and urban policy strategies and pulls people along the development (inclusivity). And the importance of knowledge-sharing experience, sustainable dialogue and cooperation between cities to tackle a multitude of global crises.
The keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Anies Rasyid Baswedan, Governor of Jakarta. He shared about digital governance in accelerating sustainable development and climate resilience and emphasises that the issue is about people, what makes a city a good living place is its people. This led the project to focus on human-centred approaches to attain digital governance and a smart city. Governor Anies also addressed climate change problems, on how we cannot address them alone, but we need cooperation and collaboration amongst the governments, communities, citizens, civil society organisations, and NGOs.
Digital Governance’s Smart Practice and Initiatives
It is a showcase of Smart City Practices and Initiatives of U20 participating and observer cities, such as Makassar (presented by Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto) in public engagement, implementation of the smart solution, gathering big data and preparing the Makassar Metaverse; Balikpapan City through electronic and digital transaction; Berlin (presented by Ms. Beate Albert, Smart City Coordinator at Berlin Partner) that has been enabled to align research with cities’ needs, re-think business (needs-based solutions), and connect people innovation; Jakarta that uses it as citizen interaction platform and digital economy among many others. Supporting the initiative was G20 partner, G20 Global Smart City Alliance, represented Mr. Yuta Hirayama, Project Lead of G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance sharing “Digital Governance to Accelerate Sustainable Development and Climate Resiliency.”
Bringing Human-Centered and Inclusive Approach to Smart City Ecosystem in Jakarta Multi-Stakeholder and Policy Dialogue
It showcased several practices from the Smart Change project that was shared by three speakers: Mr. Jan Ramos Pandia, Hukumonline & RuangWaktu Consortium, Mr. Alvaryan Maulana, Kolektif Agora (Community/NGO), and Ms. Puspita Dirgahayani, Bandung Technology Institute (Academia). Insights shared include: digitalisation, despite the benefits it brings, also presents challenges such as the exclusion of vulnerable communities as also highlighted by Ms. Anusara Chuensuang from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration; the suggestion that digitalisation technologies need to be developed in ways that are attentive towards digital and non-digital that may be necessary for effective and inclusive urban (environmental) governance, and the importance of redefining stakeholders by including the underrepresented population to avoid reinforcing inequalities; and to be cautious of the digital divide and asymmetric digital literation.
The Urban 20 Mayor Summit Side Event entitled “Digital Governance in Accelerating Sustainable Development and Climate Resiliency” was successfully held. The dialogue gave energy to cities and urban stakeholders to leverage their actions in the digitalisation sector. It also reinforced efforts to push forward governments of higher levels to support cities in every possible way.
The Urban 20 Mayors Summit as the main gathering of the U20 leaders has released the Communique.
